Pearls of Psychic Drama
by HopelessRomanticxox
Summary: Used to be The Sequel now  Pearls of Psychic Drama. Follow on from Murder, Marriage and CID - I hope you enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, I'll be honest with you. I wasn't planning to do a sequel. But with some encouragement from my ongoing readers (thank you guys! This is for you!) here it is. It's probably not as good as the original story (and for those of you who don't know, it's called 'Murder, Marriage and CID') but it continues on and I hope you enjoy it! Just want to add, a couple of the details may have changed slightly, my laptop wiped away the original story and with limited internet I'm struggling to get everything. Also, you may find that occasionally the story doesn't get updated for a while but that's because of my internet, I'm looking for a job, revising for exams, writing the story as well as posting it, and all while trying to not go mental! Anyway, enough of my babbling, that's not what brought you here…enjoy! ****J**** reviews would be nice…hint hint.**

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><p>"One, two, three, GO!" and they did. With the encouraging cheers from a still sober, due to being heavily pregnant, DI Drake, a half tipsy DCI Hunt and a slightly tipsy, newly promoted, DC GrangerSkelton both DI Ray Carling and DC Chris Skelton attempted to drain the two pints in front of each other, not a breath between them.

It was a celebration to say the least, celebrating three things. 1, after five weeks of struggling through a kidnapping case they'd finally solved and caught the bastard behind it all. 2, it was officially the one year anniversary of the marriage of Chris and Shaz and what a year it had been. And 3, well what's not to celebrate?

Everything since the events of last year had flown by and were progressing every second of the day. Alex and Gene's family were beginning after selling the flat and buying their own house as the flat alone was just not big enough. Molly was also fully settled into the house, 80's life and now in school and was spending the night with her friends. Alex's baby had grown! Not just in one way but she soon found out she was expecting twins and was even more excited than before.

CID had been completely re-decorated and whilst the arguments had lasted 2 days, deciding what the look should be, traditional always wins and apart from new desks and the room being a bit brighter it was pretty much the same.

"Baby you really shouldn't drink that much at once! Your gonna have such an 'eadache tomorrow and its gonna be me taking care of you." Shaz stroked the forehead of her out of breath husband as Ray ran up to the bar cheering and practically begging the unsure Luigi for another round to do the same again. The Italian looked at him, knowing it would up his profit but seeing the head shaking coming from Alex and Gene in the corner made a point to refuse.

"Come on plee-ase Luigi! You won't regret it… I pro…pr…promise!" Ray slurred at the bar, stumbling over his words in the effort.

"Senor' Carling no, I won't regret it. But I'm afraid you will, in the morning. It might be best for you to go home now." Luigi insisted.

"He can't go home like that! He'll end up in an alleyway somewhere or hurt himself." Alex pointed out, then realising somehow she was meant to go home with a not quite drunk, but definitely over the limit Gene who would refuse her sitting anywhere near the steering wheel.

"We'll be fine Bolls." Gene replied, like he read her mind.

"What about Ray?" She asked him, looking at the police officer who was now leering at a couple of girls sat at one of the tables.

"Wha' will we ever do about Ray?" He responded and she nodded in amusement. The team looked amongst each other and weighed up the options. Chris couldn't drive either but he and Shaz were now living just down the street and were walking also. Gene and Alex were driving even though Alex would be kept away from the steering wheel.

"We migh' as well drive 'im." Gene eventually concluded, and pushed the chair he was sitting on away from the table, reaching to finish his drink.

"Touch that drink and I refuse to sit in the car with you." Alex glared, pulling the drink away. He obeyed and instead went to peel Ray off the blonde girls and lead him to the Quattro parked just opposite at CID.

Despite his drunken state and usually reckless driving Gene seemed to pay more attention to road safety whilst under the influence. While he stuck to his 'seatbelts are for vicars' rule he obliged to letting Alex strap Ray in the back, who then proceeded to protest. However because he was so drunk Ray had seemed to conveniently forget that there is a way to unstrap himself and started mumbling about being kidnapped by his friends.

Ray's house was only a few streets away and he seemed to lighten up upon seeing it. Grabbing the keys out of his pocket Alex unlocked the door and allowed Gene to escort the drunken police officer indoors and hopefully out of harms way. The minute Ray collapsed onto the sofa he curled up and fell asleep and seemed to resemble a young child as he grabbed the blanket draped over the back and held it comfortingly.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" Alex asked, looking down at him, smiling a little at the usually rough and tough officer who wasn't afraid to throw a punch who was now curled into a ball, blanket over him and sleeping like a baby.

"No' once he realises we saw him like this but yeah he'll be fine. He's had many a nigh' like this one Bolls remember that. Come on, we be'er be gettin' back as well." escorting her back to the car the two of them had one last check in with Ray to make sure he was alright before locking the door and posting the keys back through the letter box and heading to the Quattro.

The next morning was definitely one to remember for the majority of the team. Alex sat at her desk watching the hangovers attack the minds of her team as she sat, feeling great after a good nights sleep, one of the many perks of pregnancy. Her gaze travelled over each of the team as they tried to battle through the day ahead of them. Ray was practically bent double over his desk as his hangover clearly identified itself as the worst by far. Gene was soothing his hangover, as per usual, with a small glass of scotch and Shaz and Chris were using the medicine and coffee to try and help.

"Call out at Lipton lane Guv murder." Viv poked his head through the double doors, calling over Gene who was sat in his office with the door open for a change. Alex made to get up as he entered the main office as Viv walked away and Gene began to put his coat and driving gloves on.

"No way." He stated, looking directly at Alex who was about to stand, reaching behind her chair for the signature white leather coat.

"What?" She asked in confusion, pausing for a moment to match his look.

"You are not coming Bolly. No chance. Don't even think abou' it." he elaborated for her.

"Don't be ridiculous. Why can't I come?" He looked at her pointedly, and although the question was stupid Alex still failed to see the reason why she couldn't come.

"I was still working and still out on the field when I was pregnant with Molly. What's the point in me coming to work if your just gonna get me to sit out and watch?" She complained and Ray and Chris settled back down. Hormonal DI and her DCI. Their arguments went on forever normally, they might as well get comfortable now.

"You 'ad too back then. This is different. And I keep telling yer there is no poin' in yer coming to work yer not going anywhere."

"Different? How exactly is it different? I can still cope. And for your information I didn't have to 'back then'. I was given the choice, I chose to work." She made quote marks around her words but only she and Gene knew what she meant by that. The others decided that it used to annoy the hell out of the Guv when she first started, she was probably doing it for the same reason.

"Then that's the difference. You were given the choice. I'm not giving you a choice, I'm saying yer staying 'ere."

"Try and stop me. You cannot leave your DI in the office while everyone else goes."

"I 'ave Ray."

"Ray's bloody hung-over! He's about as much use as a three year old! And Chris and Shaz aren't much better, neither are you! How professional is it going to look having four officers turn up with hangovers?"

"How professional is gonna look when I've got three 'ang-overs and a bloody officer up the duff?" Alex sighed

"I don't even know why I bother with you sometimes! Your un-bloody-believable you know that?"

"Bolly, you are pregnant-"

"-What you think I didn't notice or something?"

"-shut up will yer and listen. You are pregnant, and 'ormonal and expecting twins in a few months. Excuse me for wantin' our kids to come out fine but that's just me."

"What's wrong with Molly?"

"What?"

"I worked when this far along with her, she turned out fine."

"You can't expect that sort of luck every single time Bolly." They looked at each other in silence, and the tension was almost unbearable for the others. They shared awkward glances and Chris shuffled his feet nervously as they waited for someone to talk, or something to happen. This was how they normally were left feeling after a shouting match across CID.

"Fine." Alex sat back in her chair, folding her arms over her baby bump and sat there, glaring at him, annoyance and frustration still etched into her face. Her response however was a surprise to all of them.

"Wha'?" Gene asked.

"Fine. You go, I won't. But you better be going, you don't want the body getting up and walking away now do you?" She reminded him of last years case and how the body had disappeared. Ray, Chris and Gene looked between each other silently.

"Shaz, get yer coat." The Guv ordered, eyeing Alex one last time before leaving the room with the other three. She watched them leave quietly, not uttering a word.

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><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed, please read and review :)<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! Hope your all well, thank you for the reviews and story alerts they mean a lot to me! Okay, here's the next chapter, just a bit on the story line for you readers and a bit o' Galex for us all ****J**** Again, reviews people? You know how much I love them! **

**Enjoy….**

The shop was a little one in amongst a few others with a bright purple banner on the top with the name _'Pearls of Wisdom' _in golden italic writing. From the outside it looked just like it was a normal day with the closed sign up. However inside the place was close to being a wreck.

Entering the store a bell rang loudly from above the door. The officers stared up accusingly at the little silver instrument before setting their sights on the bigger picture, namely the damage. What must have been neat wall shelves covered in books titled many different names, all to do with magic and psychic powers, had been brought to the floor and books and the odd pages scattered the area. A large plant pot had been knocked over and soil was continuing to fall out over the books as it led next to a table with different sized crystal balls and some small drawstring bags of various stones.

A woman came out of the back room which was fronted with rows and rows of beads, leading down from the ceiling to the floor and making it gentle rattling noise when stirred.

"You must be the police." The woman commented in an Irish accent as she brushed her brown hair to one side nervously.

"That's us love, gonna tell us wha' happened 'ere?" Gene asked, adopting his 'dealing with victims' voice, one he'd been using more often lately without really noticing.

"I don't know, I wasn't here. I came in for the late shift, my colleague Amber opened up this morning. I walked out back to drop off my coat and bag, figuring she'd have the explanation for all the damage in the front but there she was, and, and-" She dissolved into tears and quick as a flash Shaz was round there, comforting the woman and holding her as she cried. Ray, Chris and Gene headed into the backroom to see the reason for the tears.

This room was less organised than the other and hadn't been decorated as elaborately either. The walls were lined with red and gold wallpaper which was peeling in some places and a wooden desk sat in the middle with a purple cloth thrown over the top and a beautifully decorated crystal ball on top. The other woman, Amber, was led on the floor, her originally green dress now darkened by thick blood that had oozed from two gunshot wounds, one to her stomach and the other on her head. She looked to have had naturally light blonde hair which was now also scarlet due to her blood and was sticking to her face. The only flesh free from blood was her calves as she laid on the carpet, milky white skin contrasting with the dark carpet.

"Struggle, and gunshot wounds. Armed robbery?" Ray suggested as Gene took account of his theory and returned to the other woman.

"Sorry love, what was yer name?"

"Mary. Mary Jones." She replied, trying her hardest to blink back more tears.

"Okay, Mary was anything taken from 'ere? Money? Expensive stuff?" Gene asked.

"No, not that I know of. When I arrived this is all I saw but the till and the cabinets are all accounted for and haven't been opened or anything."

There was indeed no signs in the shop that anything had been taken and upon revisiting the backroom nothing seemed missing from there.

"What is it anyway? A goldfish bowl?" Chris asked, looking intrigued by the crystal ball on the table. Ray looked at his friend like he was stupid.

"No you idiot. It's not a goldfish bowl, its for readings and stuff. Making things clearer."

"What, like a magnifying glass? Not very good light to do reading…" Ray looked just about to give up on him.

"No, not a magnifying glass. And not reading, a reading. Y'know, like telling the future and all that mumbo jumbo crap." He expressed clearly, sounding slightly patronising as he tried to get it across.

"It's not all mumbo jumbo crap. Some of its very true really. My horoscope predicted I was gonna have the best and worst day of my life all at once. Best bit - my wedding day, worst bit - it was a catastrophe." Shaz interrupted as she entered the room with Mary and headed over to stand beside Chris.

"It's a load of twats makin' money off people to shine a torch and tell 'em their gonna be rich." Gene commented, ending all debates.

"Actually it isn't.' Mary pointed out, 'we tell them not just what they want to here but we tell them what we think might happen. Okay so it isn't scientifically proven to be right or anything but it isn't scientifically proven to be wrong either. It's like the 'how was the universe made' debate. There are many different answers people choose to believe but we can't force them to think one way or the other. People think it's nice that there is a way to predict the future, to help them prepare for what's going to happen."

"Yeah alright so it is or isn't true that's not the reason why we're 'ere. And if we 'ave everything I think we've annoyed Bolly enough so we might as well ge' back." Gene issued his final answer.

"You'll find Amber's killer though, won't you?" Mary asked worriedly.

"You're the psychic, look in yer crystal ball and find out whether we do. But for now, we'll try our best." His victim voice had disappeared and he was back to the usual Gene, clearly his hangover had begun to go. With that the team headed back to the Quattro and towards CID.

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><p>Entering CID again Gene looked directly to where he expected Alex to still be, at her desk. After seeing she wasn't, and checking the kitchenette as well he went into his own office, shutting the door and sat down.<p>

"Typical Bolly." He muttered after he spotted a sticky note stuck to the paper in front of him. It was in Alex's handwriting, simply stating _'see you at home' _and nothing else.

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><p>Entering the house after work Gene headed straight to the living room where sure enough Molly and Alex were sat watching tv. Molly looked up as he entered the room and smiled, getting up from her chair.<p>

"I'll leave you two to talk." she left the room, grabbing a magazine from the side and soon was heard walking up the stairs to her bedroom. Gene flopped into the chair beside Alex and looked at her.

"Your burning a hole in my face." She commented before turning the television set off and turning to match his gaze, bringing her feet up and grabbing a cushion to hold as she waited for the reasoning to begin.

"You left straight after us didn't you?" He asked and she nodded.

"You kept telling me to go home, I thought I should listen for a change."

"Don't ge' me wrong Alex, I still wan' you part of this investigation. You can still do everythin' else I just didn't wan' yer wandering in to a crime scene. Wha' if he'd still bin' in there and you got 'urt? What am I mean' to do then?" He asked.

"Look Gene, I know you had good intentions, I kind of realised that the minute you left. But I hate being shut out of investigations like that. You know as well as I do an active part of police work is the field stuff as well as paperwork. I mean what's gonna happen when the twins are born eh? Am I meant to just stop working and become a full time mum, cos' I can't do that Gene. It's just not me."

"I'm not expecting yer to do that. We'll figure somethin' out we always do. I just don't want Molly losin' 'er mum again, not now. And don't tell anyone I said this but I'm, I'm kinda excited to become a dad." he looked at her properly this time, no anger, no distractions, just Alex and Gene talking about impending parenthood again. She gave him a true smile too. In unspoken words this was a token that they'd forgiven each other and would forget about the arguments from earlier, something that before their relationship expanded, they just couldn't do and would bear grudges for weeks at a time.

After sitting and watching the tv for about an hour and a half, Alex led on Gene with his arm around her they began to drift off to sleep. It wasn't until the clock started chiming for midnight that they sat upright and made the decision to go to bed. Checking in on Molly they saw the teenager curled up on her chair, also asleep, the magazine slipping from her hand.

"Molly?" Alex gently shook her daughters shoulder, bringing her from the slumber. She rubbed her eyes sleepily and looked at her mum.

"Come on sweetheart into bed." Gene went straight to the bedroom as Alex helped her half asleep daughter make the journey from the chair to the warmth of her bed.

"Are you and Gene okay?" Molly mumbled.

"Yeah, we'll be just fine babe. G'night.""Night mum. Love you." And with that Molly was practically asleep once again. Shutting the door Alex flicked the hallway light out and headed to the bedroom herself.

_A dark shadowy figure loomed over as it teased and tormented. The pain was unbearable and whoever the shadow belonged to knew they were suffering. But they just laughed, a horrible laugh that made you want to block your ears and cry. It kneeled closer, two shining eyes reflected in the gloomy view.  
><em>"_Silent and alone. You always were really. What's going to happen next? Nobody's here, you can't call out, your all alone and nobody will ever find you. Well, not for a long time anyway." The voice was croaky, like it hadn't been used in a while but it still managed to emit fear into every corner of the room.  
><em>_"Tick tick, times running out. You have until the sand runs out." a timer appeared, settled in clear sight and was left at that. All that could be done was to watch the sands slip through the narrow gap in the middle, a seemingly harmless object leading to imminent death. Unaware of who they were anymore, what had happened and what the next few minutes held in store for them._

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><p><strong>would just like to say, R.I.P to Doctor who star and star of spin off Sarah-Jane Adventures, RIP to Elisabeth Sladen who passed away due to an ongoing battle with Cancer. Our thoughts and prayers are with your husband and daughter at this time. Thank you.<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys, thank you again for all your reviews, please keep them coming! This is a longer chapter, with galex, storyline and hopefully something interesting. There were some questions about the dream? It may not make much sense at the moment but I promise you…it will, just keep reading :) ****Thank you for the suggestion for a title also, I forgot to mention my thanks on the previous chapter, sorry. I loved the idea you had for it, based on the previous story's title! I've finished writing the story now so the title may change but I'm beginning to like the idea of 'the sequel…' it gives nothing away! So this is to you guys, which would you prefer…a 'proper' title or 'the sequel…'? it's in your hands so please choose in your reviews? Much appreciated. Anyway, enough of my babbling on….enjoy reading :)**

"Alex? Alex!" Gene shook her awake as she tossed and turned in her sleep. She opened her eyes and sat up immediately, pale as if she'd just seen a ghost and her night shirt sticking to her skin with sweat. Her hair was a mess from the horrible night. He sat up also, pulling her hair back from her face and smoothing her skin, waiting for her to calm down and breathe properly again before being able to speak.

"Ssh, everything's alright now. What happened Alex?" he whispered gently.

"I, I don't really know. I was in this room, but I couldn't move or anything. I was in so much pain Gene it was horrible. And there was this guy laughing at me and said that I was gonna die. And there was this hourglass. He said, when the sands run out, my time is up." she explained as he held her and comforted her.

"It was just a dream Bolly, it wasn't real." He reassured.

"I don't know Gene, it seemed so real. So scary. I just can't ignore the laughter. It was horrible."

"Come 'ere." he lifted up his pillows and leaned back against them, pulling her down to rest against him, her head on his chest as he put his arm around her and stroked her gently. They led like that for a few minutes before she looked up once again, tentatively.

"What if its true?" She asked, but he refused to answer, mainly because he didn't know but he didn't want to continue the conversation that he didn't have an explanation for. He kissed the top of her head and brushed a hand through her hair, calming her and sending her back to sleep.

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><p>Waking up the next morning Alex shuffled in the duvet and looked around to find she was alone. Checking the clock she saw the time was 11:10 am and a note was written from Gene to say '<em>taken Molly to school, your choice about work see you later x'<em>. Taking her time to get out of bed and have a shower to wash the night away and get ready it was almost 12 when she left. Having to walk since the Quattro was with Gene at CID she began the journey before realising this was going to be a nightmare walk with a huge baby bump and doubling back, re-entering the house and grabbing the phone.

"Fenchurch East CID. Front desk, how can I help you?" Viv's voice sounded crisp and chirpy on the phone, to suggest he was in a good mood.

"Hey Viv, it's me Alex. Look Gene's got the car, I'm too big to walk have you got someone there who can pick me up?"

"I'll send someone now ma'am.""Thank you."

Putting the phone down it only took 10 minutes for someone to arrive and around the same amount of time for them to get to CID. The room was practically empty when she entered, just Shaz sat at her desk looking through the case file. She looked up and beamed at Alex.

"Hey ma'am. I thought you weren't coming in today?" Shaz commented.

"No, just had a bit of a rough night so got the lie in." She smiled in reply.

"Well the Guv is in the interview room with Mary, the girl from the shop and Ray and Chris have been sent down to get the info from the mortuary. Even my promotion has still set me back here." She told her.

"Of course, three men in a traditionally male career choice, I didn't expect anything more to be honest." Shaz nodded in agreement to Alex's point as her DI sat down, slinging her jacket over the back of the chair and made herself comfortable, knowing that she might as well wait until her colleagues returned with more information.

"So is Mary a suspect?" She asked eventually.

"Not yet, but the Guv wanted to get her statement and all the information so brought her back here for a quick question session." Alex nodded, aware from Gene's information and the empty whiteboard in the corner that nothing obvious had been revealed.

"Right. Well Gene said he was happy with me getting involved in all the other work so here goes. Shaz, can you retrieve all the information you can about Amber, contacts, movements from her final day and the build up to, where she lives, family, friends, everything?" Alex was back, and ready to get as fully involved as Gene allowed her, and when the time was right, even more.

"Sure thing ma'am. I'll start now, will be good to have some work to do for a change."

"Actually Shaz…can you check a car out for me?" Alex changed her tune, looking out the window to see nobody was heading this way.

"Erm, yeah but I can't drive ma'am. Never learned." Shaz admitted.

"No problem. Gene will have a field day if he realises that I've gone out to the crime scene but he doesn't know I'm in work yet so if you check the car out and I'll come with you. Come on, you're a DC now, time for you to get properly involved and that means going behind your DCI's orders once in a while." Alex encouraged and Shaz smiled nodding enthusiastically and heading just behind Alex to the front desk to check out a car.

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><p>Speeding down the road Alex had a safer approach to driving than the Guv and ensured that both she and Shaz were buckled in before taking off. The road's were fairly clear, allowing her to cruise down the streets and following Shaz's directions arrived promptly at 'Pearls of Wisdom'. It was clear from arrival that a clean up operation hadn't yet been put in place, allowing the two women to have a look around and gather any information andor evidence. Alongside all the mess they were less likely to be noticed if Gene, Ray or Chris returned at a later date because it was unlikely the mess would have changed. The only thing missing from the crime scene was Amber's body but as they would have been unable to find any information from a corpse about her life they had everything they needed here, and in the mortuary report that was being gathered by Chris and Ray at the time.

"Right Shaz, I want you too look through the computer in the back, check for any information that stands out. I'll go through the paperwork out here and see what may have happened."

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><p>It had been an interesting talk with Mary. Five minutes into the conversation she'd burst into tears at the thought of her colleague and friend being killed again and spent the next ten minutes complaining that it could have been her.<p>

"I wish it was me if I'm honest. She was a young girl, didn't deserve this." She'd cried out, before planting her face into her hands and bawling.

"I'm beginning to wish it was you." Gene had mumbled under his breath but alongside her loud cries she didn't hear.

"Okay, Mary? Mary! Love, yer' gonna 'ave to pull yer'self together for Amber's sake. If you want us to find this bastard we're gonna need some information and seeing as you were the only one around, yer' gonna have to calm down and tell me what you remember. Did Amber 'ave any enemies? People who'd threatened to kill 'er or anything?" Gene used his sharp tone, the one he usually used when arguing with Alex. This worked however. Mary silenced almost immediately and looked at Gene, blinking her bright blue eyes and allowing the tears to stick to the ends of her lashes.

"No.' she spoke eventually, just as he was about to go into another round of tongue lashing, 'I mean not that I'm aware of. She was a private person at work, never really mentioned family and stuff but there was nobody that had come into work that had upset her. She'd been more nervous and cautious in the couple of days beforehand. Every time the bell went for the door she'd look up startled, even though she'd been working there for 2 years, she was used to the bell going. I mean, we normally look up to see who's coming in and stuff but she'd look terrified every single time and then breath deeply and continue with the work like nothing had happened. If someone came up behind her she'd jump out of her skin and start shaking." Mary explained, getting faster as she remembered more information, the same way Gene noticed Alex did when she was on a roll.

"So Amber was scared of summin'. But she never said what she was scared of? You never asked?" Gene asked.

"I asked a couple of times, when she was really panicky but she always said it was nothing and I didn't need to worry. Turns out…I really, I really did!" She burst back into tears. Gene gave up, pushing his chair away from the desk and signalling for the police officer standing in the corner to escort her out and give her some tissue.

Returning to the main office he noticed it was now empty, and Shaz had also disappeared. Not reading too much into it he headed straight for the office and grabbed the bottle of scotch from the side. Sitting in his chair he sighed and unscrewed the lid before looking at the bottle and remembered how he was supposed to be cutting down in order to be more sober around the time the babies came. That was Alex's main fear about the giving birth. That he'd be too drunk to drive her to the hospital, or too drunk to be there during labour. Not that he wanted to be there. He could handle the blood and the waiting around if he really tried but being in a room with Alex complaining of pain and he being unable to help her wasn't his favourite thing at all. Plus he hated hospitals. They gave him the creeps. But of course, nobody except him knew that. So, instead of pouring the honey coloured liquid he put the lid back on and with each turn making it tighter and tighter he began to realise just how much he was changing in order to stay with Alex. He wasn't drinking as much, he was more cautious when driving especially when Molly was in with him, even though she would complain about how much she loved speeding down the road with the windows open. He was, occasionally calmer with victims and team members, even allowing Chris to have the benefit of the doubt every so often.

Speaking of Chris and he and Ray re-entered the room, Ray clutching the mortuary report and swiftly dumping it onto his desk as he sat down. Chris remained stood and looked around confused.

"Where's Shaz gone?" He asked, a hint of panic in his voice.

"Dunno Christopher, maybe you should put a leash on 'er then she wouldn't run off." Gene responded. Chris walked over to her desk.

"She was here when I left her…." He started but Ray looked at him in disbelief and he stopped.

"What are you gonna do? Check where you left her? If she was there we wouldn't have a problem. She's probably in the toilets or somethin' you know how long girls stay in there, it's like they 'ave a little house or somethin'." Ray replied and Chris returned to his own desk, sitting down but still looking at Shaz's seat, like it held the answer or something.

"Hold on a minute…" Ray got up himself this time and wondering over to Alex's desk, grabbing the jacket from the back of the chair.

"This wasn't here when we left the room, the ma'am hasn't been in all morning…and she wouldn't have left it." he pointed out and Gene came out of the office when he saw it and took it from Ray."One moment." He had an idea forming in his head and he wasn't happy about it. Grabbing the phone from Alex's desk he dialled the home number and waited patiently. Nobody picked up.

"Your jokin'." He stated simply and headed out the room and to the main entrance, Ray and Chris following.

"Viv, has drakey bin' in this mornin?" he asked the desk sergeant who looked up from a book on his desk.

"Err, yeah she has. Sent someone to get her earlier. Actually she left somewhere with DC Granger about half an hour ago." he explained and Gene looked astounded.

"Look's like DI Drake is the one in need of a leash." Ray whispered to Chris and Gene turned on them, glaring. Ray quickly shot him an apologetic look and changed his sight to stare at the ground guiltily.

"Come on." Gene barked and headed outside, straight over to the Quattro. Chris slipped in the back and Ray in the front but he barely had enough time to shut the door before the car roared out of Fenchurch East parking lot and down the road.


	4. Chapter 4

**This isn't as long as the previous chapter but I thought it would make a good chapter ending :)**** I'm currently deciding on a title so thank you to everyone who recommended titles and who thought a proper title would be a good idea. Hopefully I'll have one by the time the next chapter is up.**

**Just want to add, hopefully the next chapter won't be too long but if it is, I'm sorry in advance but please blame my sociology teachers for getting us to revise for our AS Level exams in 2 weeks!**

**Enjoy the chapter :)**

Within the half hour Shaz had retrieved from the computer with details about Amber and Mary, the only two workers at the small store, their shifts and the stores opening and closing times. Alex had dug out a recent customer's list and purchase report containing information from receipts and money kept in the till etc.

"Can we take these?" Shaz asked.

"Yeah. It's a crime scene, our property at the moment and these are needed for our investigation, to help rule details out. Come on, we'd better be getting back before they realise what's happened."

Driving back down the road the roads were still fairly empty and therefore it was clear to see the Quattro roaring into view ahead of them.

"Shit." Alex spotted it and quickly swerved the police car they were in down a thin road that she knew exited nearer to Fenchurch East. A confrontation in the middle of the road was not something she wanted to face.

"Do you think they saw us?" Shaz asked and Alex looked behind her just in time to see the Quattro disappear past.

"Doesn't look like it. Knowing Gene he was driving so fast he didn't pay attention to any cars unless they were right in front of him."

Walking towards the front desk to sign the car back in Shaz was followed by Alex who spoke to Viv instead.

"Ma'am, erm' the Guv was looking for you earlier, I told him you'd gone with DC Granger. Did he catch up with you?" He asked.

"No but I'm afraid he will fairly soon. Viv, next time I go with Shaz and she checks out a car and not me that means I didn't want the Guv to know where I've gone. I'm not supposed to leave the building while I'm here. Concerns for my safety apparently. How did he know we'd gone?" Alex asked and then spotted the culprit lying on the desk. Her jacket.

"Oh." She stated, remembering that it would have been a better idea to take the jacket with her, rather than leave it to be caught out.

"Sorry ma'am." Viv apologised.

"Not your fault Viv. Mine I guess. Well I'd better go into the office. Sit and face the music." She sighed reluctantly leaving the desk sergeant as she and Shaz headed back into CID.

"You gonna be okay ma'am?" Shaz asked.

"Yeah. You might want to get some ear plugs or something though. Something tells me I'm in trouble when Gene gets back and I'm not going down without a fight."

Glancing between each other it was around 20 minutes later when they heard the powerful roar of the Quattro coming to a halt outside. Shaz emitted a nervous cough but seemed surprised to see that Alex, the person who was about to come under the anger of their tempered DCI was calm and composed. Then she remembered. Alex and Gene had been arguing since day one, what's different about this one. The recognisable squeak of crocodile boots on the corridor announced Gene's arrival and shortly after he, Ray and Chris entered the room.

"A word in my office Drake?" He proposed the idea as a question, but she knew it was more of a demand and seeing as there was already about to be one argument she didn't fight against this.

Closing the door behind herself Alex waited for Gene to sit down and look to her. This time he didn't start by pouring himself a scotch like he would usually and didn't glare at her either. Instead he just watched her for a second, almost mentally preparing himself for a situation he'd been in a thousand times before and probably a thousand times again.

"What did you think you were doing Alex?" He asked.

"I knew exactly what I was doing Gene. I was going to the crime scene as I hadn't already been there to see if I could find anything different that hadn't already been taken." She replied calmly, looking directly at him, something only Alex ever seemed to have the courage to do.

"Don't be smart with me Bolls. You are supposed to be at home resting. Or don't you remember how panicked and scared you were last night?" He asked gritting his teeth.

"I remember perfectly thank you Gene. I'm pregnant but that doesn't mean I've got memory loss. Look, I did as you said. I rested and had a shower and freshened up and according to your note it was my choice about work. So I chose to come in and actually do something because you should know full well I wasn't going to stay at home and watch the telly." She reminded him of the note that he'd written.

"Yes I said you could come into work if yer' wanted. I did not say, go about with a junior officer back to the crime scene. The killer could 'ave been anyone, what if he'd come back eh? Wha' would you 'ave done then?" He asked.

"Oh change the record Gene will you? I had a gun and I'm not totally incapable! Plus we both had radios and Shaz would have been able to call for backup in no time if there had been a problem. Either way there wasn't, we survived and got more information that you clearly hadn't even looked for last time you visited. So excuse me for breaking your precious rules but you are not the boss of me and I may have brought some new suspects to light." They looked directly at one another, unaware of anything outside the room, even Ray, Chris and Shaz who were watching with interest at the debate going on inside.

"You know I don't know whether it's a good idea them being together. Spending all that time with each other is only going to end up with one of them killing the other." Ray pointed out.

"I don't know. I mean they've coped up until now without a death." Shaz commented.

"But the Guv did shoot -"

"That was an accident Chris though. He would never shoot her on purpose. The Guv would go to the end of the Earth for the ma'am."

"Doubt it. He's never too keen to leave London let alone go to the end of the Earth." Ray said.

"You know what I mean."

Before anyone else had a chance to speak it was clear the argument had escalated as Alex stormed out the office and towards the door.

"Bolly get back 'ere!" Gene yelled at her and she whipped round, anger in her eyes.

"No! I am fed up of you thinking I'm utterly useless cos' I'm bloody pregnant! I mean it was one thing to tell me I'm not allowed on crime scenes but now to tell me I should stay at home and not come out at all! What are you trying to do ground me? Or do you expect me to stay at home forever and cook and clean up after you constantly. Cos' if that's what you want Gene you have the wrong girl. You are not the boss of me, badge or not! If I want to come into work, I'll bloody well come into work. And if I want to go to crime scenes cos I know that you wouldn't have looked at all the evidence properly cos' you'd be too busy wanting to get back to your glass of scotch on the table then I will! But you should have realised from the first day that you met me, I am not a little girl and I do not play the game safely. I won't follow all the rules and I will change them to suit me. If you have a problem with that then you can go ahead and fire me but that won't stop me from proving a point. Do you understand? Now if you don't mind, I'm going to the evidence room to look at the stuff me and Shaz found earlier. Is that okay? Or am I grounded from going in there also?" Alex and Gene glared at one another, silence in the room but the tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife. With no further comments made Alex snatched the mortuary report of Ray's desk, causing him to push his chair back and then promptly left the room without looking back. The other's looked to Gene.

"Bloody woman. Get on with yer' work will yer'?" He ordered and immediately everyone in the office dropped their heads to look at the wooden desks.

"Shaz coffee. 6 sugars. Now." Knowing better than to argue Shaz practically ran to the kitchenette as Gene retreated to his office and slammed the door. Slowly, both Chris and Ray let out a breath.


	5. Chapter 5

Alex entered the evidence room, closed the door and sank down against it, sighing with relief. The drop to the floor was difficult and looking at her bump she sighed again, knowing full well that it was the hormones causing her to shout and scream at tiny little things and that Gene was only looking out for her. She knew that, yet couldn't bring herself to fight her hormones when fighting her DCI seemed that much easier. Still struggling with the simple drop the floor she gave up, choosing instead to rest against one of the shelves.

"You two are gonna be the death of our relationship at this rate." She commented, looking to the baby bump as she addressed the unborn twins. Almost as a response she felt the sharp prodding in the right of her stomach as one of the twins kicked out.

"That's right. Yeah, you. So how about you dial down the hormonal part and up the intelligence. Seeing as that will probably be the last time I actually go to the crime scene I need to remember everything I saw. Now, there was mess everywhere. Nothing expensive was smashed or taken though that's odd. If your going to kill someone your main intention would be to ruin the business and to do this you would want to smash up everything expensive. Or at the very least take it to flog on the black market. So if they are protected it means whoever did this cared about the business. Maybe an ex-employee? Also, the door was intact and so was the bell so they weren't subtle about their arrival. Either, the door was unlocked…or they had a key. Which also adds to ex-employee. I think these questions need to go to Mary." Alex spoke her thoughts aloud, knowing that this was the easiest way in the past to remember everything she couldn't write down.

Leaning against one of the shelves she unfolded the mortuary report and read through the important details. All the information was things she already knew.

"Gun shot wounds to stomach and head. First looks to be stomach where the exit wound was found on her lower back, explaining the pool of blood underneath her. The second bullet was to the forehead and didn't have an exit wound but according to this the bullet was found embedded into her skull. She was sober with no drugs in her and from angles of trajectory on the body it shows she was shot at face on. She saw her attacker." Alex's mind flashed back to when she was shot in the head, and how she had faced her attacker. Then her mind zoomed forward to when Gene accidentally shot her in the stomach and she realised the points she'd been attacked in the past were the same on Amber.

"Coincidence. I never even knew Amber. But maybe the attacker? No. coincidence. Got to be." Alex shook her head, refusing to believe it was anything else. Gathering up all the paperwork she had been looking for she breathed a sigh of relief once again and made the journey back to CID.

The team were still sat, focussing on work when she re-entered and upon instinct Alex looked directly at Gene's office. The door was closed but he was looking at her, no expression on his face but he didn't remove his stare as he reached for the coffee on the side. Alex smiled a little before sitting at her own desk and looking through the employee register for the past six months.

"No ex-employees?" She muttered to herself, double checking quickly before leaving the desk and heading to the whiteboard, thoughts running through her mind. Scribbling down everything she'd mentioned to herself in the evidence room she turned to the others, rapping the pen on the board to gain their attention.

"Okay. Mary says Amber was alone in the room when she was murdered yes? But it you look at the evidence it suggests two things. Firstly, the person who killed Amber clearly cared about the business because all the things she did smash up were cheap and worthless, the expensive and likely things to be stolen remained intact on the shelves. This would immediately suggest a previous employee but there wasn't any. Second. Whoever did this had previous entrance to the store. They either unlocked the door or it was already open and they weren't afraid as they didn't try and remove the bell or anything, they just let it ring. This would have got Amber's attention when she was in the back room but why didn't she come and investigate. Even if the shop was open she would have gone out to keep an eye on things and offer help if it was a customer. She couldn't have known it would be her killer." Alex pointed out the information she'd written down, informing the team. Gene came out from behind his desk to stand in the doorway of his office.

"Mary said to me tha' Amber had been nervous recently. Always panickin' and lookin' up when the door went." He told Alex.

"So why wouldn't she have gone to look outside at who's entered? Under normal circumstances an employee would leave the back room to see who's out there, especially if they are nervous and constantly wanting to know who's entered. But this time she didn't. So, either Amber already knew who was entering the store but didn't make any attempt to hide or get away or -"

"Mary lied." Gene realised.

"Yeah. Or at least she knows something that she'd failed to let us know."

"Bring her back in?" Gene asked.

"I think we have a few more questions for Miss Mary before we can rule her out." The look between them was like there had been no argument less than an hour previously and instead they were working together again.

* * *

><p>"I've told you everything I know. Why have you brought me back here?" Mary asked, more angry than upset.<p>

"Well you've cheered up a bit(!)" Gene commented sarcastically, noticing how the frustration was a stand in for the tears she'd expressed earlier.

"Miss Jones? I'm DI Alex Drake we have a few more questions that have brought themselves to light. Would you be willing to give us a bit more information in relation to this case?" Alex introduced herself to the dark haired woman.

"Look. Amber is dead. She's no less dead than she was this morning so surely you should be out there looking at the evidence and finding her killer instead of questioning me when I don't know anything." Mary complained.

"I understand that you want justice but we can't do anything more until we have some questions answered. The physical evidence can only do so much explaining. The rest is up to the people who were around Amber that day and in the weeks building up." Alex explained, hoping that Mary would understand and comply to what she and Gene were asking from here without more complaining.

"Okay. But just for Amber. What else do you need?" Mary asked.

"You left Amber to open up yesterday morning so that shows the shop was open when Amber was killed. The door wasn't tampered with and the bell still working when we arrived yesterday, so why didn't Amber come out from the back room when the bell went?" Alex asked.

"How should I know. I said to 'im that Amber was paranoid when it came to the bell, maybe she was too scared to see who was there while I wasn't in." Mary replied.

"But if that was the case why would she agree to opening up the shop in the first place without you there?"

"Amber was always trying to please people, maybe that's why."

"Okay, thank you Mary. Now, to the chaos that was in the shop. Clearly a lot had been destroyed by the killer but do you have any idea why they only destroyed cheap things in the store. All the expensive stuff was accounted for, and intact." Alex pointed out.

"I don't know! How am I meant to know what runs through a killer's mind? Maybe they were angry at Amber, went straight to her and got angry in the process because she hid in the backroom and destroyed the place." Mary looked annoyed at all the questioning.

"Either way, anything expensive was kept safe and unharmed. Mary, what your saying makes sense in a way that makes no sense at all."

"Now your making no sense?" Mary shook her head with exasperation, once again returning her gaze to the door, making it clear she wanted to leave.

"Funnily enough that actually makes sense. I dunno whether it's cos' I now know you too well and actually understanding your highly qualified babbling but I actually understood that." Gene looked astounded at Alex and she smiled.

"Care to explain then?" Mary asked.

"Your story makes perfect sense and is a reasonable idea as to wha' migh' have happened. However lookin' at what the evidence and scene shows it makes no sense." Gene told her but she still looked confused.

"Basically, its like a story. Like…Goldilocks. It tells the story of a blonde girl with three bears - your story on Amber's death. But the illustrations show a busy city street - the real life situation doesn't allow the story to work. If I was a killer and broke into a store and the girl I was after tried to escape through the backroom I would go straight there, stuff the rest of the store. If a fight broke out beforehand in the main store I would flip the front door sign to closed and smash up the entire area _including _the expensive artefacts." Alex finished the explanation in a simpler way.

"Well maybe the killer wasn't as smart as you. Look, can I go now?"

"We'll be in touch." Alex assured her and Mary wasted no time in leaving the room. Alex and Gene both stood after she left, Pausing in the room as they watched Mary disappear from sight.

"You let 'er go?" Gene asked.

"You let me conduct an entire interview." Alex retorted with a smile.

"Something ain't righ'." He agreed.

"She knew more than she was letting on that much was clear. But something else…she seemed desperate to get somewhere, constantly checking the time, looking at the door."

"We follow her?"

"Stakeout." with that, both of them left the room and quickly enlisted the entire team to take two of the separate plain clothes investigation cars and drive in opposite directions. Grabbing a separate car Gene steered relatively close to normal speed limits to keep from being noticed, following the deep blue Ford Fiesta that headed in front, with Mary at the steering wheel.

"No drastic action. Just following and finding out where she's heading. No guns, nothing. And don't get seen." Gene issued commands into the radio as he steered the car into a parking spot, watching Mary's car.

Mary turned into the driveway of a little house on the corner and as she left the vehicle she looked both ways, checking she wasn't being followed. Knocking on the door of the house the person who answered was unseen by the detectives and quickly slipped Mary into the house.

"Who was it?" Gene asked into the radio.

"Dunno Guv, didn't see." Ray replied. He was in the car at the end of the road with Terry. Bammo and Poirot were waiting just behind the house and Chris and Shaz opposite. Upon asking, all explained they hadn't seen the person in the house.

"This proves she's hiding something though. Why be so nervous walking into a house and keeping it all hush hush if its just a family? This woman makes no sense." Alex kept an eye on the house as Gene reversed the car out and signalled for all the others to head back to CID.

"Nobody lies to the Gene genie Bolly you should know that. She'll ge' what's coming for 'er. Bammo, keep tab on the 'ouse, when she leaves, try an' get a view of who she was visitin" Gene then fully reversed the car they were in and sped down the road, not as impressively as the Quattro would have done but still fast enough to beat all the speed limits in the area.

**Hey guys hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'm guessing you may have noticed (at least I hope you did) that the title has now officially changed…what do you think? Pearls of Psychic Drama - hopefully all the links will unravel, connecting the title to the story. They really are obvious (I think so anyway) so hope you approve! Reviews would be wonderful my favourite Fan-fictors! :)**


	6. Chapter 6

Shortly after returning to CID they decided to call it a day and head to Luigi's for a well earned drink. The little restaurant was noisier than usual today, and upon arriving the team were surprised to see a group of drinkers sitting in their usual seats.

"Well that's unexpected." Alex commented as she went past the team to the bar to order the drinks from Luigi. The drinkers hadn't noticed that CID were now stood there watching them, almost psychically willing them to move.

"Luigi, there is an arse in my seat. What is it doin' there?" He asked, striding over and standing next to Alex as the others followed behind.

"They arrived first signor' Hunt. You can't expect me to move customers. There are plenty of other seats." Luigi replied, pouring a glass of water for Alex and setting it beside the alcoholic drinks she'd ordered for the rest of the team.

"Luigi we were 'ere first. About 4 years ago when we came down to London. Now either you move them or I will and I think I know what you'd prefer." Gene insisted and Luigi sighed, knowing better than to complain and headed over to the table.

"You are so fussy you know that? It's just a seat Gene, what's so special about that one?" Alex asked.

"That Bolly is my seat. 'as been my seat since we came from Manchester and it's not changing now." Reluctantly the group of drinkers moved and two of them promptly left the restaurant, saying goodbye to their friends. The others moved to the other side of the restaurant and continued to drink and talk like nothing had happened. The team headed over and took their seats also and Luigi brought the tray of drinks over, depositing them in front of the respective drinker.

An hour after the drinking began, once more the team were more than a little bit tipsy. The amount of alcohol had encouraged Ray to make an 'apology' in his own slurred words as he crossed the floor to the drinkers from earlier, his sights set directly on the red haired girl with clothing that left little to the imagination. She seemed keen to see him also and now she was sitting in his lap at their own table, mesmerised by every word he said.

"Looks like Ray doesn't need our 'elp getting home tonight drakey." Gene pointed out and she turned to look as the girl practically launched herself at Ray, resulting in them making out directly in their eye line. Alex turned away in disgust.

"Well I wish he would just go, or at least get a room." She replied, finishing off the glass of water with a note in her mind that it didn't work nearly as well as a glass of wine. Almost to annoy her purposely Gene poured himself a generous helping of a particular wine he knew to be one she favoured.

"2 more months. I can wait two more months. I have too." She reminded herself aloud and looked away from Gene to see Shaz and Chris speaking in hushed tones about something that she seemed excited about and he looked more than a little worried.

"Chris you look like you've just bin' told to run to top of a cliff and jump." Gene pointed out, snapping the couple out of their whisperings and Chris looked everywhere, almost nervously.

"Shaz." Alex nodded towards the bar and the young officer followed her superior as Gene and Chris stayed behind. Sitting down on one of the empty stools Shaz sat next to Alex and looked rather less excited than she did before.

"What's going on?" Alex asked.

"I asked Chris if he wanted a baby." She said in response, clearly not understanding the seriousness of the subject when it came to a permanent worrier like Chris.

"Ah." Was Alex's only reply.

"Well we've been together for a year and we've spoken about having kids in the future but it is the future and I really want a baby and well he…doesn't. Do you think it's too soon?" Shaz asked.

"I think if you feel your ready for a baby then I don't see why not. But remember Shaz there are two of you in this relationship and you need to look out for your wants and needs _and _Chris's. Honestly? You'd both be excellent parents, no doubt about it. But I think you need to talk to Chris in private, wait till you get home and explain to him this is what you really want and how you feel about it. Basically this needs to be between you and Chris in your home. Not between the whole of CID in the local restaurant." Alex explained and Shaz nodded.

"How did you go about talking to the Guv about having kids?" Shaz asked.

"I didn't. It was a complete surprise, but a good surprise. We never had the conversation properly, but we talked about having kids in the future and what we both wanted. He said that while he loved Molly to bits he's always wanted someone to continue you on the family name. You know, a Hunt junior."

"Christ, two of them." Shaz laughed and Alex nodded smiling.

"You won't have them at home. God can you imagine a teenage version of Gene?"

"I'd rather not. Sounds like the stuff nightmares are made of." The two of them laughed at Shaz's comment and more laughter erupted from the corner as Ray and the girl got up and left the restaurant.

"What's the bet that he gets sober and realises she's some kind of hooker?" Shaz asked as the two of them also left, returning back to their usual seats where Gene and Chris were sitting.

* * *

><p>"It was amazing! An' I mean you saw her but they weren't fake they were real and bloody hell…" A huge grin on Ray's face showed that he'd obviously had a good night with the red head and he was now relaying all the details onto Chris who, no matter how hard he tried, couldn't pull off the unimpressed look he was going for.<p>

Using the information on the house, the car and Bammo and Poirot's stakeout from yesterday the team had managed to find out that the house Mary had gone to had been bought by her only a couple of weeks ago. Her reasons for getting a new house were based solely on work, that she needed somewhere that was near to both the store and the warehouse. Everything seemed legitimate and this annoyed everyone more as they couldn't find a tiny detail that seemed out of place. Mary hadn't been at the store according to her statement so she didn't know exactly what went on and with no eye witness accounts and no others involved it was getting more and more awkward.

"Ray, we're not at the pub anymore so shut up about your bloody girl and start re-reading through those files to see if there is anything we've missed." Alex told him sounded frustrated as she slammed another report that didn't have any extra information on down onto the table, a force so strong it caused another sheet to blow off and onto the floor.

"I'll get it." Chris headed forward and grabbed the piece of paper from the floor, bringing it back to Alex. Upon hearing through whisperings from fellow officers that the Guv was looking for a new DS for CID he had been out to impress, and with guidance from Ray they realised the best way to impress the Guv was to impress the DI who he was sleeping with. Therefore Alex had numerous cups of tea and biscuits brought to her without asking from Chris as he tried his best.

"For Christ's sake." Alex muttered under her breath as Chris put the paper down and spotted the empty mug and hurried with it in his hand to the kitchenette for a re-fill. Before he had a chance to return Alex left her own seat and headed inside Gene's office, a chance to get away.

"I wish you'd hurry up and hire someone for that DS job Gene, Chris is driving me mad. I'm gonna turn into a bloody teabag if he makes me another cuppa." She complained, leaning against his filing cabinet and resting a hand on her stomach.

"Not quite so good in bed." He smirked in response.

"You won't have anyone in bed if you don't hurry up and stop him from making my life a bleedin' misery. It's bad enough with hormones, a case with no answers and a balloon for a stomach let alone 200 cups of tea in the space of an hour!"

"Its not tha' easy Bolls." He sighed.

"Yeah cos' your office is flooding with willing participants(!) I mean I can't believe I managed to get in here, the amount of invisible people waiting for your response(!)" Alex replied sarcastically.

"Well in a choice between Mr invisible and wonder Chris, Mr invisible is looking much better at the moment." he joined in her sarcasm and she smiled rolling her eyes.

"Well erm…ooh look, Mr invisible obviously got a better job offer cos' he's on his way out. Oh no, now what are you going to do?" she feigned mock sympathy and held her arms up to act it out better.

"Bolly I will make a choice but with this bloody case on our backs I wanna focus on tha' right now. Okay?" she nodded at his selection reluctantly and made to leave the office before he stopped her.

"B look at this. Why doesn't that look right to me?" Gene flipped the paper round to show her and she scanned the paper quickly, soon identifying what he was on about.

"Because that isn't her signature. Guv, that isn't Amber's sign in signature. If you match it to the rest of her sign in's they are different, different style everything. Someone forged it. Someone's been signing in for Amber for the past week. That means Amber wasn't there the day 'she died'. Guv, Mary's lied to us about everything!" Alex looked at him, wide eyed excitement that they finally had something new, in her voice.

"Bitch. Righ' Lady B let's bring her in again. I will get my answers."

"Oh she's gonna love that."

* * *

><p>Entering the interview suite Mary was not alone. A stern looking man sat next to her, briefcase laid out on the desk in front of him as he muttered something inaudible to Mary and straightened his tie with a sharp tug.<p>

"Ooh look Drakey Mary has a boyfriend." Gene commented as they entered and though she may have been wrong it did look like the male figure shoved his chair slightly away from Mary.

"My client Miss Jones has said that you have already called her in for questioning twice Mr Hunt and both times let her go, therefore she called me in to ensure this is a final interview." The man explained.

"Well with all due respect the reason we have called her in these numerous times is because the evidence we receive links Mary with Amber's death." Alex replied, sitting opposite him.

"I did not kill her! Amber is my best friend this is ridiculous! You people are talking a load of shit." Mary complained in an argumentative tone.

"So go on then pinstripe. name?" Gene asked.

"I am Mr Peter Harris. Private lawyer working for my client, Miss Mary Jones." He explained, almost like he was already standing up in court.

"Alrigh' we don't want yer' life story, just a name'll do."

"Look, why am I here?" Mary questioned.

"I have a question for you Mary actually. Can you explain to me why Amber didn't sign in on the morning she died. The morning she opened up?" Alex asked and Gene lit a cigarette and casually blew smoke in Mary's direction. She ignored it and fixed her gaze onto Alex's.

"I don't know. How would I know? I wasn't there." She replied, teeth clenched.

"Okay then. Well we've looked at the sign in sheet. Amber did sign in-"

"-you've just told my client she didn't sign in. This is deceiving my client." Peter interrupted.

"Well you've just interrupted me _sir _so could I finish? As I was saying, Amber did sign in on the morning of her death…but somebody forged her signature." Alex eyed the lawyer briefly, to prove her point.

"Really? Who?" Mary asked.

"Well that's the thing, we don't know. Being the head of the store we thought you'd have more of an idea." Alex asked.

"I'm sorry. Like I've said, it's just me and Amber. I don't know who else could have signed her in."

"What abou' the rest of the week? Amber's signature is consistent throughout the week, but isn't 'ers." Gene puffed another ring of smoke out as he asked the question.

"I'm sorry I didn't know about this. If I could I would speak to Amber but as I can't I have no answers for you. What else can I say?" She asked.

"Nothing Miss Jones. I'm sorry but with no evidence to suggest my client is the killer you are looking for you have no reason to keep her here."

"Somethin' ain't right 'ere. Mary, Mary quite contrary…doesn't know anything about 'er store, doesn't have any answers, or she does…but they don't fit the evidence. We'll be in contact." Gene finished, pushing his chair back as Mary left with peter following. As he reached the door he turned back to the two detectives.

"No you won't. Not without valid data to prove something. Contact her again without it and I will hold Fenchurch East on an account of harassing my client." With that, he left.

* * *

><p><strong>Bit more on the case but not a lot of Galex (I don't want to turn this into a fluff-fic, despite how much everyone loves fluff and Galex :D) Please read &amp; review and thank you to all my readers who have been reading on from my first fanfic. Your support has really encouraged me to write and I even posted a story on another page, however with no reviews at all on that its now gone. Never mind, more focus on this. Although, if you are interested, I am posting a one shot fanfic on the Doctor Who page about Rose10. I don't know if I can advertise stories on here….it's still on fan if that's a problem :D**


	7. Chapter 7

A week had passed with barely any information to continue with. The super had been calling Gene pretty much everyday, urging him to finish up and make an arrest soon or the entire case will be passed on to another team. Refusing to back down nights at Luigi's had been suspended until further notice, and the time was now spent trying to find something new. With Alex now into her 8th month of pregnancy it was making life a lot more difficult and with this added onto the case, it was making everything worse. She had now taken to half days after another argument between Alex and Gene had proven that Alex was no longer capable of working the full shift. However the times she was there she was still on top form and taking control as much as she could.

The drawbacks was having it's affect on everybody. With limited time to smoke Ray was getting agitated a lot quicker and with no drink to calm him down he was taking it out on those around him, especially Chris who turned out to have a lot on his plate also. He and Shaz had, had the conversation and were now trying for a baby. It was now coming to the end of the day, and Alex had already left, heading home to wait for Molly.

Standing in front of the mirror Alex fluffed her hair and sighed. She wasn't trying to look like she'd tried, and it was very hard to feel good about the way you look when your stomach was big enough, that with a strong enough wind she would probably take off. Stepping away she had just managed to settle herself on the sofa before the door went.

"Are you actually kidding me?" She moaned to herself and heaving herself back up, heading for the front door. Opening up however, nobody was there.

"Bloody kids." She complained and pushed the door shut, walking away. But the door never clicked. And instead of a simple click, a cry out for Gene was all that was heard.

All was quiet in CID now, the team practically crying out for a little spark of evidence, or something new to come to light before the next phone call cut off the case. All was quiet, until the doors slammed open and in walked the red headed girl from Luigi's, followed by an exhausted Viv.

"Lisa?" Ray looked surprised, shuffling forward a little on his seat in confusion and interest.

"I'm sorry Guv! She burst straight in, refused to listen to me!" Viv panted with the effort of chasing her down the corridor.

"This is important. This is bloody important! Ray fucking Carling I hope your happy, I hope you had a great time the other night you fucking bastard!" She yelled and screamed at him.

"Woah, woah, woah! Calm down love what did I do?" Ray stood opposite her, looking bewildered at the breakout.

"You got me fucking pregnant!" She screamed and Ray's face went white. He didn't speak, for once a speechless Ray just stared, and at her face, not her chest."Speak then! What did you think it was impossible? What the hell am I meant to do? She was still yelling, tears running down her face and Ray's silence making her angrier.

"Look, maybe we should take this outside." He eventually breathed.

"No. I never, ever wanna see you again! If I keep this baby it's mine, not yours. If I don't….well I guess you'll never know will you. You're a fucking bastard Ray Carling and I never wanna see you again." She cried and stormed out again angrily, Viv following.

"Jeez. Women." Ray attempted to laugh it off.

"You should have followed her Ray. There are too many guys out there having their way with a girl and not bothering with consequences. Your now one of the statistics." Shaz pointed out. Viv returned about half an hour later, this time his companion was a lot younger, and following rather than leading the way.

"Gene! Read this, read it now!" Molly was just as forceful as her mother, it was all in the tone. So without questioning, Gene did as he was asked. It was a note written on a scrappy piece of paper but the message was clear.

'_We've taken Alex. Always right and hardly ever listened to you really should make a note to keep an ear open for your DI. Of course that note will be no use to you now…cos she's now ours. And she will die should you come looking for her'_

"Who's it from?" Molly was almost in tears now, due to worry and lack of understanding.

"I dunno. But I 'ave an idea. Shaz, 'ave we got a copy of Mary Jones writin'?" he asked.

"Yeah I have one right here Guv." Shaz hurried over, handing him the piece of paper which Gene automatically held up alongside the note and compared the handwriting.

"It's Mary's. And I bet that the signatures of 'Amber' are also Mary's." Gene said, adopting the finger quotations that had been famously known as Alex's.

"So Mary now has Alex?" Chris questioned anxiously.

"Righ' we need to find where Mary's taken Alex. Bammo, Poirot and Terry I want you to go to the 'ouse we were at before and find out if Alex is there, break the bleedin' door down if you have too." the three officers nodded and proceeded out of the office swiftly.

"Molly go to reception and ask Viv to take you 'ome." He then decided. She stood her ground though.

"No chance. I wanna help. I want my mum safe and this time I am staying the distance. I'm not having her in danger while I stay at home again no way. Not gonna happen." She resisted, her mother's stubborn charm flowing through freely.

"Molly this is a crime scene you are a minor. I don't want you anywhere near this, now Shaz take 'er to reception and get 'er 'ome." Shaz went over and gently placed a hand on Molly's shoulder, which she soon shook off.

"No way. What part of that do you not understand? I may be a minor but I am still capable thank you very much." She insisted.

"Yer' mum wouldn't want you part of this."

"Mum's not here." she glared at him and right then it was like Alex was back in the room, only younger, and blonde. She had the stubborn touch, the charm and the gleam in her eye that people struggled to resist, especially Gene. And sure enough, he backed down.

"Fine but yer' not havin' a gun and you will do exactly as you are told. Clear?"

"Crystal." She finished.

"Then lets get to work mini Drake."

20 minutes later and a quick radio message from Terry to say that Alex was not in the house but the store had been ransacked once more and all the expensive stuff removed. They had also checked the store thoroughly but Alex wasn't there either.

"Righ' get the paperwork from the store, there must be something significant we've missed." Gene ordered, stress mounting and coming through his voice. Chris grabbed the paperwork and brought it to Alex's desk, where they had made a base around to investigate.

"Wait a minute I know that symbol,' Molly declared, pointing at the picture of the crystal ball with a healing necklace around it, the symbol for the store.

'It's on the warehouse round the back of school. Barely anyone goes in there though." she explained and the team looked at her.

"A young drakey in the making." Gene sounded proud of her, confident in her point.

"So she's at the warehouse?" Shaz asked."I dunno Shaz. Let's have a look shall we?" He headed into his own office and grabbed his jacket and driving gloves. Molly stayed sat down.

"Come on then. Part of being a detective is all about field work." He enthused and Molly jumped up, eager to join in and find her mum.

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><p><strong>So, what did you think? Honest opinions as always, and also, what did you think about the RayLisa situation? And Molly taking the role of her mother? Read and Review please, your thoughts are always something nice to read when I come home from college :)**


	8. Chapter 8

The room was dark and cold. Somewhere the unmistakeable sound of a dripping tap was heard and each drip was like a pound to the head. Alex couldn't move, or rather, she wouldn't move. Fear of being watched or something happening had taken control but she was so uncomfortable she had to move slightly. Regretting it almost instantly she stretched her body slightly. A blind pain ran through the length of her stomach and her hands clasped around where one of the babies would be. Feeling the cold runny liquid in her fingers she panicked silently and raised her hands to viewpoint. They were drenched in scarlet blood and the pain was unbearable. Crying out she knew subconsciously that nobody was around to hear and nobody would come for her. Fearing the worst she allowed a tear to roll down her face as she mustered up the courage to cry out again, even though it was hopeless.

"Gene." It wasn't a cry, it was barely even a whisper. All her strength at speaking out vanished the moment another rush of pain surged in her womb. Realising she was unable to move Alex moved to her next hope. She scanned the room with her eyes, allowing them time to adjust to the darkness and spot various items in the room. Near the back were three rows of boxes, stacking high up, suggesting the room was fairly big. Apart from that however, Alex seemed to be the only one there.

Sweat was dripping from her forehead now and her hair against her neck allowed the heat to increase rapidly. To Alex, the room was like an oven rather than the cool temperature it was actually based at. She felt sick and the pain was so strong it was making her feel woozy and faint as well as shaky.

"Help me" Was all she could mouth helplessly. All the energy she had now was working on keeping her eyes open, scared that if she closed them she wouldn't be able to open them again, ever.

She wasn't aware of the time that had gone by from getting home, being attacked and waking up here. Now it was just a waiting game. Suddenly the door burst open, and a bright light filled the darkness, so bright that Alex was temporarily blinded, only able to see the shadow of her holder.

"Silent and alone. You always were really. What's going to happen next? Nobody's here, you can't call out, your all alone and nobody will ever find you. Well, not for a long time anyway." the voice of the doorperson said, a voice that didn't sound familiar. But that wasn't playing on Alex's mind. Instead, flashbacks of the night just a week ago, waking up from the horrible dream flushed her mind, each detail identical to the room she was in now. The confusion and pain beforehand had clouded her thoughts, meaning she didn't recognise. Until now at least. Alex was too weak with pain to respond or even to look up properly so just waited patiently for her dream to play out.

"Tick tick, times running out. You have until the sand runs out." the ornate egg timer was placed close to Alex's viewpoint. It was identical also, the golden sand piled at the top of the glass container, slipping grain by grain into the bottom which was held together with solid emerald material. Alex recognised it, not only from the dream, but also from the store.

The room was once again plunged into black as she laughed and shut the door, leaving Alex and the timer, alone.

"Please…" Alex sobbed, knowing now, without a clue how the dream ended, she was alone, stuck and alone.

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><p>Gene was driving desperately, a man on a mission as he powered through the streets of London, one thought on his mind. Alex. Molly was sat between Shaz and Chris at the back, Ray in the passenger seat and all were silent. The only sound was the occasional squeal of rubber on tarmac as the Quattro swerved round corners and launched itself onto the final stretch towards the warehouses. People on the streets were stopping and watching the mighty red car drive past, it's usual blur now into practically a virtual state. Blink and you'd miss it. But the roar would ring in your ears for the next few minutes.<p>

After what seemed like forever the bright, glowing symbol of the store came into focus and Gene punched his foot on the accelerator, using every last ounce of effort and strength in the Quattro to speed it up. Squealing to a loud halt, the noise like a pig being strangled and the Quattro came to a halt. A deserted halt. While the car was still stopping the team had left the car and were now in the process of bursting through, into the warehouse.

"Alex? Alex!"

"Mum?" Both the team and Molly yelled at the top of their lungs, before dropping into silence, visibly shaking in anticipation of a reply. Nothing.

"Righ' Ray, Chris start on those doors, Shaz keep 'old of Molly." Gene barked the orders, hammering his body against the nearest door afterwards. Nothing inside though. In the seconds silence between slamming doors the call of hope could be heard. A painful moan was heard from a few doors down and everyone broke out into a run towards it. Ray got there first and threw himself at the door, the teams desperation transmitted through his actions. Eventually the door was flung from it's hinges and as it dangled helplessly they stormed through, Gene and Molly dropping to Alex's side, willing her to be okay.

"Alex? Come on Alex, come on. Please." Gene urged, holding her up a little to help.

"Gene." It was a faint whisper but it was enough. He smiled at her, relief flooding through his face."Hey lady B. How you doing?" he asked. She allowed another tear to trickle down her cheek. She didn't respond verbally, instead held up her hands. He gasped, and so did the others. They were drenched in blood. Fresh blood."Bolly?" Gene automatically scanned for signs of visible injury.

"The twins." She whispered.

"Aw, yes Gene. The precious twins. I think something might be wrong…don't you?" Gene whirled round on the spot to see the doorway blocked by three tall women. One, unidentified. The other two.

"Mary Jones." Gene confirmed.

"Lisa?" Ray looked astonished as she laughed.

"Puh-lease. As if I'd be that bothered about a pregnancy. Get an abortion, move on with your damn life, no problem. I was the distraction. While poor little Alex went on a trip." Lisa explained patronizingly cocking her head as she looked at the DI.

"Who are you?" Shaz asked to the other, blonde haired woman.

"You know me. Of course you do. Amber. Amber Wilcox. Sound familiar?" She grinned, threateningly.

"That's impossible. Your meant to be dead." Chris sounded convinced of his theory while she mocked hurt.

"Meant to be dead? That doesn't sound very policeman like. No, no, no _sir_ I'll have you know I am meant to be very much alive thank you. In fact our little dead friend? Don't even know her name. Just hired her to do some work for us. Bumped her off and staged the entire thing. Genius eh? Can't take full credit, Mary is the brains of this outfit." Amber mocked applause at her comrade who bowed in response.

"Thank you, thank you. You see, our store has a lot of expensive artefacts. I believe you've met our recent one…oh look, times nearly out." Mary cocked her head in amusement and for the first time Gene noticed the timer. It was almost empty.

"Alex? Alex talk to me!" Gene was louder this time, encouraging speech. However Alex was now unconscious.

"If she's dead. I'll kill you all." Ray warned, approaching the three of them. Lisa held up a gun and he stopped in his tracks. She smiled at him and changed direction, pointing it at Molly who froze in her spot. Gene saw Molly's fear and turned, gun in hand, pointing it to the girls. But it was weak, and he knew that if fired he'd miss by a mile, or hit someone on his side. The fear of Alex's life was like something he'd never experienced and for the first time since Jim Keats last year he could see his hand shaking.

"Shaz, Molly, Ray, Chris, get to the back." Gene tried to regain control and the four of them did as they were told. Lisa switched her aim again, this time focussing on Gene as she smiled, a smirk full of hatred. Although, it wasn't the bullet that made the first noise. A crashing sound from behind Alex and Gene could be heard as the others came to a halt and Chris stood, mortified. He'd hit the boxes and they'd fallen breaking open and revealing the stolen objects from the store that had been left unharmed previously. Gene then managed to regain something. Confidence. Wasting no time he zoomed round to see all three girls distracted by the crash. 1.2.3. Each girl fell as a single bullet took them down. Not dead, but definitely unable to stop Gene and the others while they helped Alex and got help.

"Christopher I never though' I'd say this to you but bloody well done." Gene announced and Shaz smiled proudly as Ray slapped him on the back in congratulations.

"Ray, Chris keep an eye on them and call the blues and twos. Shaz I need you to take care of Molly while I get Alex to hospital." Gene issued commands.

"I wanna come too Gene please. I need to be with mum." Molly pleaded.

"Molls I'll call you soon alrigh'. I wanna make sure yer' mum gets there quickly and sorted. You wanna her to be awake when you see 'er yeah? Good girl." He patted her head once she nodded and lifted a still bleeding Alex off the ground and into his arms, back to the Quattro.

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><p><strong>One chapter left already! Once again, so sorry for the slow updates. The last chapter should be faster as I am now finished with college and work experience and I have one week off before I start working full time! Super excited but that does also mean that this will be the last story in this Sequel as I have to focus on work. I might do another big story in the future, either for Ashes to Ashes or something else so please, please, please keep a look out for me! Also a couple of fluffy one shots may appear every so often. Well, what did you think? Enough of me talking please read and review and I will update the last chapter fairly soon :D x<strong>


	9. Chapter 9

The room was white and Alex sighed. Without a flicker of confusion she was relived, knowing she was in a hospital, alive and safe. Remembering the blood she dropped her eyes to her stomach and sat up was no bump.

Gene had re-entered the room and saw her shock."Blimey Bolly you look like yer' tryin' to match the room or summin'." He smirked and she looked at him confused.

"Gene…?" Was all she said.

"Come with me." He had a weird expression on his face, something Alex didn't ever remember seeing before. Then she realised. It wasn't relief, and it wasn't happiness. It was true, gleeful, pride.

He led her out of the room, supporting her as they walked down the corridor and through three sets of double doors before arriving outside a large window. Looking inside she set her eyes on about 40 young babies. Gene still didn't comment but instead led her into the room and over to the back middle where two incubation cots sat side by side, a bundle wrapped in blue and a bundle wrapped in pink.

"Oh, My, God…our babies?" Alex whispered.

"Our kids Bolly. The boys fine." He told her and she looked fearful.

"What's wrong with the girl?" She asked.

"She's gonna grow up and look like you." He told her and her shock turned to mock anger as she slapped him against his chest playfully.

"I'm joking Alex. Both are healthy and beautiful."

A few hours later, after Alex and Gene both got some well earned rest, the rest of the team turned up, with an anxious Molly. They slipped into the room to see Alex and Gene sat side by side on the bed with the babies in their arms.

"Everything's okay?" Molly asked, heading over and hugging her mother happily and cooing at the babies.

"No, everything is not okay actually. Gene, I am actually going to kill you. What on Earth made you think it would be a good idea to bring Molly to a crime scene like that? She could have been killed!" Alex turned to him.

"But she wasn't. And in all fairness Bolls, she 'as yer temper. I thought you could be angry but bloody hell it was like teenage Bolls."

"Everything is okay though, isn't it ma'am?" Shaz asked tentatively.

"Yeah Shaz. Everything's absolutely perfect." She smiled.

"Oh wonder Chris, due to much complaining and your clumsiness yer' now DS Christopher Skelton. Congrats." Gene told him and his face lit up.

"That's brilliant baby! Now everything's perfect." Shaz commented happily.

"Everything?" Alex asked her, regarding their conversation in Luigi's last week.

"Yeah everything. We decided a while ago, just kept it quiet. We're trying to get pregnant."

While the congratulations were sent round a loud cry erupted from Gene's arms. The youngster was awake.

"Unlucky Guv, you have 36 years of that." Ray laughed.

"36?" Gene asked.

"18 for both kids."

"Jesus Bolly who said this was a good idea?"

"You did as I recall. Anyway, bit late for complaining now." Alex handed Molly the little girl and took the boy from his arms, smiling at the bundle.

"Names?" Ray asked.

"We've got baby Sam and baby Annie. Names sound familiar?" Alex asked as Ray and Chris beamed at the name choice. It was a proper family unit now, mum, dad, three kids, with support everywhere they turn.

"No more drama?" Alex asked.

"No more drama." Gene confirmed but they both knew, as did everyone, that no more drama wasn't something experienced when working in CID, nor would anybody want no more drama. It made life a lot less boring.

3 weeks later Alex and Gene were able to take the babies home with them. By the end of the month Shaz and Chris announced in the centre of CID that Shaz was pregnant and Ray declared that he'd actually been on two dates with the same girl and hadn't 'done the deed'. Nobody believed him at first until one night at Luigi's he made the introductions.

"…_this morning convicted murderers Mary Jones, Lisa Roberts and Amber Wilcox were sentenced to jail for 25 years for the murder of 26 year old Callie Harris, who was visiting family in London, living with her husband and child on the South Coast. Amber Wilcox was also sentenced an extra two years for fraud - faking her death while Mary Jones was given an extra 2 years for lying to the police."_

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><p><strong>I am so sorry! I know I promised you all it would be posted within the week but I was so much more busy preparing for work than I thought I would be, getting last minute stuff you know and then before I knew it I was already working and I don't have normal hours, they change everyday so once again so sorry I hope you did enjoy the chapter!<strong>

**Reviews would be great thanks, also thank you all for reading and reviewing both this story and the first, I really appreciate you following and all your feedback, it really means a lot!**

**Thank you, thank you, thank you ****J**** Hope to be writing again soon! x**


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